Step 3 of Procreate ~ Toads

Step one was the male wooing the female to the area he claimed in the pond.
Step two was the sweet talk and latching onto the female.
Step three is the actual laying and fertilizing of egg strings.

Once again I am posting pictures of step 3 for all you voyeurs out there and also for those that just don't know how big toads make little toads.  An added bonus is seeing a toad egg string.

With the male firmly attached to the female she starts to expel strings of eggs.  The males job is to fertilize them as they exit the female.  This is a pretty subtle thing and is done over the course of hours.  The pictures below were taken during the fourth hour of toad mating bliss.  Can you tell how excited they are?  I can't either! As I write this we are well into our fifth hour and things are looking just the same as it did during the fourth hour except they have moved.

She at least has her eyes open.  He, on the other hand, looks like the effort is beginning to take its toll.

The female is definitely in the drivers seat.  If she decides to dive she dives and he had best be holding his breath.  The male
letting go doesn't seem to be an option.

The difference between toad eggs and frog eggs is the toad eggs appear to be a string of eggs as seen in these pictures.  Frog eggs are more of a gelatinous mass.  Hopefully Leo the Leopard Frog will finally attract a mate and we will have something to compare.

While we wait for Leo to catch-up these toad eggs are already on their way to maturity.  It will be Monday or Tuesday when we will see the tiny polliwogs (tadpoles, toadpoles, toadlets) moving and hatching from their individual egg.  They will eat algae for the most part. Once the egg laying is complete the toads will have nothing more to do with the eggs or toadpoles.  We may, however, see this same couple back in a few weeks... hope they don't lose their name tags so I'll be able to ID them.

This is the first year we've had fish in the pond and it will be interesting to see if they munch on toadlets.  I've read where many creatures won't eat them because they taste bad but I have no idea if goldfish have read the same article.  Even if the goldfish eat toadlets there will be plenty that survive as they will go over the water falls and be distributed throughout the pond as they have done in past years.  Let not your heart be troubled... we aren't in charge, this is Ma Nature's deal.

I have covered much of the toad mating and toadlet growing in previous blog posts.  You can, of course, navigate to previous posts and if you do so you will then know all I know about toads and toadlets.

I'll update this very blog as the events materialize.  This is so exciting!!!!

Whoohoo!!